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Trump expected in court on Tuesday

Former President Donald Trump will be formally arrested and arraigned next Tuesday in his hush money case, court officials say

NEW YORK – After being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, former President Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned in court on Tuesday, a law enforcement source has told Fox News.

Judge Juan Merchan is the trial judge presiding over the case, which stems from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into alleged hush money payments Trump made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump is scheduled to be arraigned at 2:15 p.m. in Merchan's courtroom on the 15th floor at 100 Centre Street in New York City.

In addition to Trump's personal attorney Joe Tacopina, a second source has confirmed that Trump has made arrangements with the district attorney's legal team to surrender without handcuffs. Detectives with the DA's office will handle the arrest. Former prosecutor Peter Frankel on Trump indictment: ‘You can indict a ham sandwich’

NYC criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Peter Frankel joined Good Day New York to discuss the news of former President Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury.

Law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Secret Service, New York Police Department, FBI, New York State court officers and the DA's office will meet Friday afternoon to finalize details about the logistics and security of Trump's arrest.

President-elect Donald Trump looks on during a rally at the DeltaPlex Arena, December 9, 2016 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Secret Service will determine how Trump is brought in, the source familiar said. 

Sources previously told Fox News that Bragg had requested that Trump surrender to his office Friday after the grand jury voted to indict him Thursday evening, but the Secret Service delayed his surrender. 

RELATED: Why was Trump indicted? What to expect in New York hush money case

The indictment of a current or former president of the United States is unprecedented in American history. The criminal charges against Trump come after a years-long investigation into a $130,000 payment to Daniels and another $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, allegedly to keep them quiet about alleged sexual liaisons they had with Trump during his first campaign for the presidency. Trump has denied the affairs and any wrongdoing. Trump indictment: What can we expect with security?

The NYPD is ramping up security in the aftermath of the indictment of former President Donald Trump. Barricades went up and police presence increased around the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Those payments had been investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019, even as his then-attorney Michael Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal on campaign finance violations. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

"This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal," a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said in a statement Thursday. "Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected."

RELATED: Can Donald Trump still run for president despite indictment?

Trump reacted by slamming Bragg for his "obsession" with trying to "get Trump," while warning the move to charge a former president of the United States will "backfire." Trump attorney on Manhattan indictment: Political prosecution hes ready to fight

Donald Trump’s New York attorney Joe Tacopina on Good Day New York reacted to the news of the indictment, which was the first against a former U.S. president, and discussed when Trump may surrender.

"This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history," Trump said in a statement. "From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats- the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country- have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement."

The investigation into Trump was opened in 2019 by then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The probe was focused on possible bank, insurance and tax fraud. The case initially involved financial dealings of Trump’s Manhattan properties, including his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, and the valuation of his 213-acre estate Seven Springs in Westchester.

Last year, the investigation led to tax fraud charges against The Trump Organization and its finance chief Allen Weisselberg.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Find more updates on this story at FOXNews.com.

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‘China is preparing to invade Taiwan’ – but there are questions over whether the island is ready

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'China is preparing to invade Taiwan' - but there are questions over whether the island is ready

At a critical port on the Taiwanese island of Penghu, there is a sudden bang of explosions.

For emergency crews, it is a race to respond, attend to the injured and contain what damage they can. It is noisy and chaotic.

But this time, it is just a rehearsal.

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Is Taiwan ready for Chinese invasion?

In fact, what we have been invited to watch is part of a programme of nationwide drills to test Taiwan’s civil resilience.

To ask, in essence, if its people are ready for war.

And there are clearly questions here about whether they are.

A man feigns injury during a drill, simulating an explosion at a port on the Taiwanese island of Penghu

Penghu is an archipelago that sits about 31 miles (50km) west of Taiwan’s main island. It could be an early, easy target for China – and that means preparation here is vital.

But observers who have travelled from Taipei to assess proceedings are not entirely impressed.

“Do you think with just the staff here now it will be enough?” asks one senior government official at a community hall where about a dozen staff are practising handing out food and supplies.

“Of course not! There will be more than 7,000 people queuing up. They’ll wait from morning until the afternoon and get nothing. It’s completely impossible.”

Image for HA Smith piece on Taiwan security

‘China is preparing to invade’

The scenarios might be imagined, but the threat behind them is very real, and it’s being met with a new sense of urgency.

And now, in an interview with Sky News, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister Wu Chihchung lays out the reality in perhaps some of the starkest terms used by this administration to date.

“The population need to not be naive like in the past,” he says.

“China is preparing to invade Taiwan.”

Helen-Ann Smith sits down with Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Chihchung in Taipei
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Taiwan was naive about its security, says deputy foreign minister Wu Chihchung

It comes at a time when increasingly sophisticated military activity and grey zone incursions from China have combined with a more robust approach from Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te, resulting in the most febrile atmosphere in the Taiwan Strait for decades.

Add into the mix Donald Trump’s presidency casting doubt over whether Taiwan can rely on US support in the event of a crisis, and questions about Taiwan’s readiness feel more pressing now than ever before.

“Taiwan alone, facing China – we will never be ready,” concedes Wu. “It’s not possible, China is so big, so huge.”

His words reflect harsh realities in Taiwan.

Self-governing and democratic, it is viewed by China as a breakaway province.

Under President Xi Jinping, the long-held aim of reunification has been turbocharged – he has reportedly asked his troops to be ready for a potential invasion as early as 2027.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s new president is seen as a deeply provocative figure on the mainland, with Beijing depicting him in propaganda as a parasite “courting ultimate destruction”.

In Lai Ching-te’s first year in office, he has demonstrated a willingness to go further in both words and policies than any who have preceded him.

He has not only described China as “a foreign hostile force” but has introduced a raft of new security measures, including the reinstating of a military court-style system, the deportation of pro-China influencers and a spike in the number of people arrested for espionage – four times as many last year as in 2021.

And all this has not gone unnoticed by China.

China’s grey zone tactics

The 14 months since Lai’s inauguration have been marked by an increase in Chinese action: numerous large-scale military drills, live-fire exercises and full encirclement of the island by jets and ships.

Beijing also appears to have been testing new capabilities, with onlookers in China taking videos of what appeared to be a test of a huge amphibious bridging system, a possible path on to Taiwan.

But perhaps the most noteworthy change has been the marked increase in so-called grey zone incursions, with China encroaching slowly in ways that are hard for Taiwan to respond to.

On Penghu, these tactics are a daily reality and are impacting lives and livelihoods.

“In the past, our fishing boats could go directly to mainland China. They’d even go ashore, maybe grab a meal,” explains Yen Te-Fu, who heads up the Penghu Fishermen’s Association.

A fishing boat off the Taiwanese island of Penghu
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Penghu’s fishing industry has been impacted by Chinese incursions

“But fishermen are now too afraid to sail to China. When they fish in our own waters, they constantly see Chinese Coast Guard ships. They’re genuinely scared.”

He says it’s worse now than ever “because Lai Ching-te’s stance is even clearer”.

But the use of coastguard vessels to enforce new Chinese-set norms is just one tactic, according to observers.

Taiwan Coast Guard vessel Ji An, right, chases after Chinese Coast Guard vessel 1302 off the coast of Hualien, on Thu, Dec 12, 2024
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Taiwan’s Coast Guard faces off against Chinese counterparts near the coast of Hualien, east Taiwan, last December

Research published by the Taiwanese thinktank Research Project on China’s Defence Affairs (RCDA) has recorded new incidents of so-called “three-no” ships crossing the median line.

These are ships with no name, no registered home port and no registration certificate.

Thirty ships crossed on the eve of the one-year anniversary of President Lai’s inauguration as an “evidently disguised maritime militia ship”, the RCDA says.

Image for HA Smith piece on Taiwan security

While not against maritime law, it is nonetheless a serious accusation.

“This is nothing but a sheer slander, like a thief shouting ‘catch the thief’,” said Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of national defence, when we put it to him.

“The relevant actions conducted by the PLA in the Taiwan Strait are necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Transactional Trump ‘constantly changing’

Conversations about Taiwan’s security have changed since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Like most countries, the US does not share formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but it is treaty-bound to supply it with defensive arms, and previous presidents have hinted they would do more if needed.

But Trump has accused Taiwan of “stealing” the US semiconductor industry, slapped it with a 32% tariff rate and refused to say if he would come to Taiwan’s defence (the tariff has been paused while negotiations continue).

At a baseball game in the northern city of Taoyuan, people didn’t hold back their views.

Sky News went to a baseball game in the Taiwanese city of Taoyuan

“I think he’s quite crazy,” one woman tells us.

“He’s constantly changing, there’s no credibility at all,” says a man. “It’s always America First, not caring about any other country.”

A woman at a baseball game in the Taiwanese city of Taoyuan. She said of Donald Trump “I think he’s quite crazy.”
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‘I think he’s quite crazy,’ says a baseball fan on Trump

Government figures, of course, remain more diplomatic. Lai described the recent tariff negotiation as merely “frictions between friends”, but there is a sense that they know they cannot afford to become alienated from Trump.

In fact, TSMC, Taiwan’s (and the world’s) leading manufacturer of semiconductor chips, recently announced an additional $100bn investment to build factories in the US.

Semiconductors are the vital chips needed to power the modern world. Taiwan makes more than 90% of the world’s most advanced ones, and the industry is seen as one of the key reasons the West could come to its support.

Taiwan's Semiconductor Manufacturing Company invests $100 billion in the US
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Trump announced the $100bn deal with TSMC president C.C Wei at the White House

The US investment was thus criticised by some as a divergence of Taiwan’s greatest defensive asset, a claim the government here bats away.

“America has also given us a lot,” insists deputy foreign minister Wu. “The American army is working hard to maintain peace in the region.

“Donald Trump certainly knows that without Taiwanese chips, he cannot make America great again.”

Taiwan’s ‘wake-up call’ on defence

With more concern over US support for Taiwan, come questions on whether the island could defend itself.

In recent years, there has been a concerted push from the Taiwanese government to better equip itself with the type of asymmetric weaponry that would be needed to resist China.

Inspired by the experiences of Ukraine, additional drone manufacturers were given contracts in 2022 to help rapidly scale up production of military-grade drones.

But data from the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology shows that there is still a long way to go.

Thunder Tiger supplies drones to the Taiwanese military
Image:
Taiwan is attempting to scale up production of military-grade drones

Drone production capacity in the year to April 2025 was only around 5% of the 180,000 units Taiwan wants to be producing annually by 2028.

Thunder Tiger was one of the firms given a contract and its general manager Gene Su says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “wake-up call” for Taiwanese military procurement.

But more needs to be done, he adds.

“I believe we are speeding up, but I believe that it’s not yet there,” he says.

In his dealings with the government, he feels that Trump has changed the equation, with an uptick of defence purchasing.

Thunder Tiger board director and general manager, Gene Su
Image:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a ‘wake-up call’ for Taiwan, says Gene Su

But even with these renewed efforts, without help from allies, it is still unlikely Taiwan could hold out.

China has always been resolute and consistent.

It says the Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China and that the Lai administration is a separatist force, which is the root cause of disruption to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

It also says there is “no such thing” as a deputy foreign minister in Taiwan.

The status quo has kept Taiwan safe for nearly 80 years and the government here insists that maintaining it is their priority, but that has rarely felt so vulnerable.

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The rise of Money2: The next financial system has already begun

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The rise of Money2: The next financial system has already begun

The rise of Money2: The next financial system has already begun

Money2 is a new financial system powered by stablecoins and DeFi. With $225 billion in stablecoins and code-based contracts replacing banks, Money2 is already changing how value moves.

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Appeals court overturns Nate Chastain’s conviction in OpenSea insider trading case

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<div>Appeals court overturns Nate Chastain's conviction in OpenSea insider trading case</div>

<div>Appeals court overturns Nate Chastain's conviction in OpenSea insider trading case</div>

Former OpenSea employee Nathaniel Chastain has successfully appealed his judgment of conviction for wire fraud and money laundering.

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